JOHNSTON, Iowa - The Drake
football team met head on one of the toughest opponents it will face all year
on Sunday (Aug. 14) as the Bulldogs visited Camp Dodge to participate in
Operation Bulldog with the United States Marines.

The mission was designed to train,
educate, and inspire the Bulldogs in order assist them in building a cohesive
unit that is prepared for a successful upcoming football season.

Drake head coach Chris Creighton credited his junior class spearheaded by Nick Rosa (Owasso,
Okla./Owasso), for wanting to do a team-building exercise in preparation for the
Bulldogs' 2011 campaign.

While it was Rosa's brainchild, it was seniors Michael Lahart (Chariton, Iowa/Chariton) and Stoy Hall (Omaha, Neb./Westside) who met and organized the outing
with the Marines at Camp Dodge.

The entire Drake team and coaching staff arrived at the "Freedom Center"
a little before 2:00 p.m. for a briefing from Major Sean Quinlan, who spoke to
the Bulldogs about tradition and what he believes, are its nine principles. Those principles include; team work,
respect, attitude, discipline, initiative, toughness, imagination, old breed
and new breed.

The Wolfpack Nation, which included Marines representing
units from five states and soldiers from 12 states were present to run the
Bulldogs through a series of team-building initiatives during the nearly
three-hour session.

Following Major Quinlan's speech which he concluded with two guiding
principles for the team, which were, do right and fear no one and no one breaks
your spirit, the squad headed to the parking lot for the beginning of Operation
Bulldog.

The team split up into two
55-man groups (offense and defense) and fell out onto the road in front of the
"Freedom Center" where they picked up several logs to run with to the
Leadership Reaction Course.

Once there the teams split up into two units, with one participating in
the LRC and the other in the Combat Fitness Test.

The CFT consisted of the ½ mile
sprint, ammo can lift, and the maneuver under fire portion of the test. Once the ½ mile sprint was complete,
the team then executed ammo can lifts, needing to lift the can 97 times in two
minutes. Once the lifts were
completed they executed the maneuver under fire portion of the CFT.

For the "maneuver under fire" portion
of the test, there were five lanes (11 men per lane). The Bulldogs crawled 30 yards before getting to their feet
to zigzag through the course for another 30 yards. Once at the end the players had to drag a teammate 10 yards
before using a fireman's carry to lift their teammate an additional 50
yards. The player then needed to
carry a pair of 30-pound weights for 60 yards, throw a grenade at a target, and
do five pushups before carrying the weights back past the finish line to complete
the course.

The LRC had five lanes running
simultaneously. Each lane had an
11-man squad with one squad leader working to accomplish the given task. In addition, each lane had an Non-Commissioned
Officer in Charge (NCOIC) who was responsible for briefing the scenario to each
squad, assigning the squad leader, and leading the debrief. While there were five lanes running,
each squad was only able to complete two of the five lanes. Each NCOIC ensured that the squads
receive 15 minutes to complete the task and five minutes to complete a debriefing.

Once both groups completed the CFT
and the LRC, the units jogged back to the "Freedom Center."

The Marines presented a special
baseball bat to Creighton, Lahart and Hall before the Bulldogs presented a
game helmet to the Marines in appreciation of their efforts.

Drake opens its season on Sept. 1 with a 7:00 p.m. tilt at North Dakota.